administration deliberately misled the public. >> and we were misled, that there was supposedly protests, and then something sprang out of that, an assault sprang out of that. >> with all due respect, the fact is we had four dead americans. was it because of a protest or was it because of guys out for a walk one night that decided they'd go kill some americans. what difference, at this point, does it make?! it is our job to figure out what happened and do everything we can to prevent it from ever happening again, senator. >> reporter: it makes quite a bit of difference, of course, in the context of the global terrorist threat throughout northern africa, including, now, mali and algeria. >> there's no doubt that the algerian terrorists had weapons from libya. >> reporter: it also makes a difference to those republicans convinced that the administration was misleading. >> i categorically reject your answer to senator johnson. to say that it's because an investigation was going on. the american people deserve to know answers. and they certainly don't deserve false answers. >> we just have a